Urartu

Background

Urartu was a kingdom on the Armenian Highlands, a region spanning present-day eastern Turkey, Armenia, and northwestern Iran. Its heartland lay around Lake Van. "Urartu" is the name used in the records of its neighbor Assyria; the Urartians called themselves "Biainili." Assyrian records mention various tribal confederations in the region from the thirteenth century BC, and these confederations are thought to have been united into a single kingdom by about the ninth century BC. The Urartians spoke Urartian, a language closely related to Hurrian, and left inscriptions in a cuneiform script adopted from Assyria. The chief deity of the kingdom was Haldi.

History

• Mid-ninth century BC: Assyrian records mention a king named Arame. Sarduri I later made Tushpa (modern Van), on the shore of Lake Van, his capital.
• Late ninth to early eighth century BC: The kingdom's territory expanded under Ishpuini and Menua. Menua is famous for building a long canal that supplied water to the capital.
• 782 BC: Argishti I founded the fortress of Erebuni, regarded as the origin of Yerevan, the present-day capital of Armenia.
• Mid-eighth century BC: The kingdom reached the height of its power under Sarduri II. Around 743 BC, however, he was defeated by Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria.
• 714 BC: Sargon II of Assyria launched a campaign and routed the army of Rusa I. Musasir, the site of the sanctuary of the god Haldi, was also plundered at this time.
• Seventh century BC: Rusa II sought to revive the kingdom, building new fortresses such as Teishebaini (Karmir Blur). After this, however, the records become sparse.
• Early sixth century BC: The kingdom collapsed. A widely held view attributes its fall to attacks by the Medes, but the exact date and circumstances remain unclear.

Aftermath and Legacy

After Urartu disappeared, the region came under the rule of the Medes and then the Persians, and it later became the land of the Armenians. The relationship between the Urartians and the Armenians remains a subject of ongoing scholarly discussion.

Ararat in the Bible

The Old Testament name "Ararat" is written with the same Hebrew consonants as Urartu, and it is generally understood to refer to this kingdom or its land. The Bible mentions it in the following passages:

• Genesis 8:4: After Noah's Flood, the ark is said to have rested "upon the mountains of Ararat." Because the Hebrew uses the plural "mountains," some interpret the phrase as referring to the mountainous region of Urartu rather than to a single peak. A traditional understanding, however, identifies the location with the mountain known today as Mount Ararat.
• 2 Kings 19:37 and Isaiah 37:38: The sons of the Assyrian king Sennacherib, after killing their father, are said to have "escaped into the land of Armenia" (Hebrew: "the land of Ararat").
• Jeremiah 51:27: "The kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz" are summoned against Babylon.

Assessment

For a long time, Urartu was known only as a name in Assyrian records and the Bible. From the nineteenth century onward, inscriptions, fortresses, and bronze artifacts were excavated around Lake Van and in Armenia, and Urartu came to be studied as a distinct civilization. Its techniques for building fortresses on the high plateau and managing water are regarded as hallmarks of the kingdom. For readers of the Bible, Urartu demonstrates that "Ararat" was the name of an actual nation of the ancient Near East. Views still differ, however, on the exact place where the ark came to rest.